The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-09-25
IN THE WOODS.

whitening meadow and tree top and
mountain side, and the chill winds
fringe the rivers and streams with
the sparkle and glimmer Of Ice, and
glass the surface OF the waveless
pools. Good bye toyacht aud yacht.
ing and the noisy rush Of wind
tossed waters; and welcome 70 flow
ing stream aud purlipg brook and
inllnd lakes that make q mirror for
the beauty and glory OF the over.
hanging hills. Good bye to wet
cock pit, slippery deck and smoky
stove; and welcome the dry. clean
canoe Of birchen bark, the noiseless
paddle and the camp fires rudy
glow. Al. me, this Is like old
times-this lite OF the woods once
more, when al is sweet and cool and
quiet, and the sir is perfumed with
gummy odors.
What do / do in the woodsf Sup
pose l told you. you wouldn't under
stand. Can a boy tell you what he
did the tappiest day OF his lite, IN
which he did nothing but play2 We
remember work days, death days
days OF toll. pain and parting, but
who remembers aught OF the play
days, the days that were 80 evenly
full Of happy feeling that there was
not one hour or one moment OF all the
day to give il prominence in mem
ory2 People think-some do-tha,
memory will become tiresome 10
eternity. They forget. Happiness
has little memory, misery long one.
Happiness relates TO tho present, and
when you are perfectly happy, the
past is nothing, and the future ia
nothing; the present itself contents,
aud needs TO borrow nothing from
past or future. Memory is a copso'
lstion for q present deprivation
makes shift for something better.
The loved face is absent; you com
fort yourself with the memory OF IT,
aud SO memory makes good the alb
sence Of persons and things whose
presence would make the present
all. abundant. doubt II We reInem-
Der much in heaven: the present
will be 80 full wc shall be content.
Therefore. when you ask me what
l do, what can l say save this-epjoy
myself.
Ii is a bright, brisk day. The sun
is hot. but the winds are cool; the
sky was never bluer. IL is q blue
with depth 10 it-a color composed
Of miles OF cerulean atoms-lnfin-
itesimal, minute. tits not q surface
color, as il painted on the sky as on
a material dome; the atmosphere
itself is blue, and the eye looks, not
at the sky, but into il, and through
depths OF delicious coloring. What
pleasure IL IL, lying on the pine aud
balsom boughs, to rare up into the
great blue, whose volatile atoms
seem TO part TO allow the gsre TO pen
citrate their innermost recesses.
A raven perched on the bough OF
q tree, croaks its harsh welcome. II
does not tell me what poe's raven
told him. but l dare say the differ.
ence Is not in the birds. Poe had q
bad stomach. l have ono that /
need never insure. II Poe had been
healthier he would have been hap.
pier. An old physician said TO me
onraL ..lIapsie,spic 'uoctdr or divin-
ity remarked In my hearing on Ger.
tain occasion: Health 10 heaven. :"
He was suffering from toothacbe at
the time. / wonder what the effect
would be, morally, | mean, IL every
body was healthy. Suppose the sick
should all become well. the weak
strong, tho cripples be cured. those
dying from pains be delivered there
IRON, they without appetite become
good eaters, the people with morbid
tastes become normal In their crav.
ingr, j wopder what would happeu2
Yesterday was Sunday. / know IL
was. because, two days before, Ban
tis,e refused 10 eat meat padded
from camp aud spent the day In sol.
itude. thinking What was | think.
ing about2 just what you seldom
do, perhaps, God. Not the God Of
your Congregational church, or the
God Of your Baptist denomination,
or the God Of your Methodist prayer
meetipg-the technical, formal, the
illogical God you don't hnd him 10
the Canadian woods. Jesus didn't
hod him by the sea OF Galilee, or
among the grain heads OF what
God was / thinking2 or the God
that Is not form nor fgure, but
spirit, whose coming aud going are as
the winds; whom We knos only as
We hnd Him; in what he has made
aud done, Is making aud doiug--lho
great begstting, forming, life giving
spirit Of the universe, IN whose hands
the seas are, aud who holds all birds
In His protecting vision. The best
men u the old world we're not made
80 10 churches. II We are not
CAREFUL, the irrevereut will
be able 10 say that the worst men Of
the present time have been made so
10 churches. Men who cheat their
iellowmen, who cheat widows and
orphans aud people with horny hands
because their hands have work, d
since childhood, are able 10 20 to
church regularly, aud their con.
sciences stand the preaching aud the
praying easily enough. am not sure
but that church going helps q thief,
u his thicying isn't found out: but
such q man could not stand QUO sin
gle night Of solitude In this wilder.
ness. What faces he would see in
the darkness-iaces Of those whom
he had cheated, aud who didn't
know as yet that he had cheated
them. What voices he would hear
in tho stillness--yoicos OF those from
whom he had taken their living, aud
who had just found OUT that they
were penniless. A solitary cell 2
Certainly. That's the worst punish.
ment that the ingenuity OF the law
can inflict upon guilt.
When you consider the constitu.
ton Of the mind, you SEQ how hor.
ribly iorcoiul IL is. Well, the wilder.
ness, tho great outstrctching, uniu.
habited woods would be q solitary
cell to one OF these guilty mep, more
dreadful because OF lis sine; iur